Skip to content

Star Wars, The Force Awakens Review

Westside Steve's Movie Reviews
21 6 648
  • Yes Gip, my point was that it's a generic version of the older films. This was hopefully intentional, to tie things together and after they will go off in new directions that don't rely on the same narrative, but this one was a bit of a let down for me, and a bit lazy, creatively.

    @gftchris said:

    Yes Gip, my point was that it's a generic version of the older films. This was hopefully intentional, to tie things together and after they will go off in new directions that don't rely on the same narrative, but this one was a bit of a let down for me, and a bit lazy, creatively.

    It has been a JJ Abrams trait to recreate with twists previous work. Obviously done so in the Star Trek movies.

  • @gftchris said:

    Yes Gip, my point was that it's a generic version of the older films. This was hopefully intentional, to tie things together and after they will go off in new directions that don't rely on the same narrative, but this one was a bit of a let down for me, and a bit lazy, creatively.

    It has been a JJ Abrams trait to recreate with twists previous work. Obviously done so in the Star Trek movies.

    @the-gipper said:

    It has been a JJ Abrams trait to recreate with twists previous work. Obviously done so in the Star Trek movies.

    Sure, and as stand alone movies, those have all been great. But like I say, if the next two are just more re-telling, I'm going to be very disappointed.

  • I'm going to go against the grain here and say I liked Abrams' 'star trek' more than his 'star wars'

  • They were both good, I just prefer the Star Wars universe.

  • I'm going to go against the grain here and say I liked Abrams' 'star trek' more than his 'star wars'

    @the-cysko-kid said:

    I'm going to go against the grain here and say I liked Abrams' 'star trek' more than his 'star wars'

    Oh I liked it a lot better, but I like Star Trek better than Star Wars in the old days.

    and both those series are great and groundbreaking pieces of work while the new ones are an artist rendition of the old.

    WSS

  • Steve did you ever play "mass effect"?

  • Steve did you ever play "mass effect"?

    @the-cysko-kid said:

    Steve did you ever play "mass effect"?

    Nope. I buy these fucking games and then they don't keep my interest. I finally got PGA Tour golf up and running. Disappointed that I couldn't make my character have long hair or a beard. 🙂

    If I get to a spot where I can't figure out the illogical puzzle I just give up. When I was younger I would turn down the sound crank up the stereo and keep going back in the building, recharging and then coming back out to kill more and more monstersecretive until I had a shitload of gold and weapons.

    I bought Witcher and gates of Mordor, or something like that, and the newest version of Final Fantasy X 1.

    WSS

  • Try mass effect. It's both a brilliant stand alone action Sci fi epic (it never gets slow in my opinion like final fantasy) and also highly reminiscent of star trek although it builds it's own mythology.

  • @gftchris said:

    This movie was at the same time entertaining, gripping (for what direction they were going to take it) and a big let down. As a stand-alone movie, it was really great. Solid action, an ok-if-not-amazing plot, some good character development. But, the biggest thing for me, it was as if - and I've thought a long time about this - the original trilogy was a low budget japanese/eastern european version, and then hollywood got the rights to it, and just retold the same story with a bigger budget/better acting.

    Copy and pasted from an email I sent at the time:

    Pretty much every element of the story was taken from one of the previous films:

    - bigger death star
    - need to take out the shield generator
    - unwilling hero comes back to save the day - Fin/Han
    - servant on desert planet happens to be awesome pilot, mechanic and have the force - Rey/Anakin
    - fat alien boss on said planet is a dick - this one/the flying blue one from TPM
    - Darth Kylo Ren... "I know there's some good in him, he can be turned back to the light, we have to try!"
    - Mos Cantina II - the small alien woman is even called 'Moz Katana'
    - new jedi has to go to random undeveloped planet to find jedi master - Rey/Luke
    - need to get some crucial piece of information somewhere, hide it in a droid
    Did you not think that all that was not done purposeful? Clearly the writers/directors were intent on mimicry of the original.
    The question is not: didn't they realize this follows the same script as the original? Of course they did. The real question is: how did they pull off this refabrication of the tale? I would say: pretty damn well.
    On top of that, Rey is just a bit unbelievable. She is not only an expert mechanic on everything, apparently, also know how to fly the falcon, easily fights off two guys, is now a jedi and within a couple of hours of finding that out she's already stronger than Darth Kylie?
    I think it may be clear that they are setting up Rey to be Super Special with the force. My favorite scene was when Ren was reaching for the light saber and attempting to teleport it to himself....and it zips right by him into Rey's hand. THAT is when you begin to think: she is something beyond what we have seen.
    BB-8 looks like R2D2 and Wall-E had a baby. He is now forever known to me as 'Roll-E'
    Again, you talk like that is a bad thing.
    The film's humour seemed really contrived, like, we're stopping the action to deliver a one liner, here it comes, *one liner* ok, we'll get back on with the action. Never mind that you're trying to blow up a planet in the next 3 minutes, by all means stop and chat. In the old movies, the humour was in keeping with the environment - in a big fight? Situational humour. In safety? Got time to deliver a joke.
    I disagree.....the method of delivering the one liners is just about the same. The original movie was campy as hell. Did you forget about that?
    It was *really* convenient that Fin got marked with blood at the start, so we could tell it was him all the time. Definitely couldn't have picked up on it without that, unless I'd maybe thought a little.
    I will only agree to the point of saying that Fin seems to me to be a forced character. I guess he is supposed to be the newer Han Solo.
    Or, is that the role of Poe Dameron. He does not quite have a corresponding role from the original...though he gets to do some of the "Luke-ish" things.
    Emo Kylo Ren is really emo. I get that he's a sith, so emotions->anger->hate etc, but it was very in your face.
    Except some say he is not really a sith.....and neither is Snoke....but that they are something else. I guess we shall see.

    @the-gipper said:

    @gftchris said:

    Emo Kylo Ren is really emo. I get that he's a sith, so emotions->anger->hate etc, but it was very in your face.
    Except some say he is not really a sith.....and neither is Snoke....but that they are something else. I guess we shall see.

    I guess we'll find out who Snoke is in a couple of years- other than being Gollum (Andy Serkis). 🙂

  • This movie was at the same time entertaining, gripping (for what direction they were going to take it) and a big let down. As a stand-alone movie, it was really great. Solid action, an ok-if-not-amazing plot, some good character development. But, the biggest thing for me, it was as if - and I've thought a long time about this - the original trilogy was a low budget japanese/eastern european version, and then hollywood got the rights to it, and just retold the same story with a bigger budget/better acting.

    Copy and pasted from an email I sent at the time:

    Pretty much every element of the story was taken from one of the previous films:

    - bigger death star
    - need to take out the shield generator
    - unwilling hero comes back to save the day - Fin/Han
    - servant on desert planet happens to be awesome pilot, mechanic and have the force - Rey/Anakin
    - fat alien boss on said planet is a dick - this one/the flying blue one from TPM
    - Darth Kylo Ren... "I know there's some good in him, he can be turned back to the light, we have to try!"
    - Mos Cantina II - the small alien woman is even called 'Moz Katana'
    - new jedi has to go to random undeveloped planet to find jedi master - Rey/Luke
    - need to get some crucial piece of information somewhere, hide it in a droid
    On top of that, Rey is just a bit unbelievable. She is not only an expert mechanic on everything, apparently, also know how to fly the falcon, easily fights off two guys, is now a jedi and within a couple of hours of finding that out she's already stronger than Darth Kylie?
    BB-8 looks like R2D2 and Wall-E had a baby. He is now forever known to me as 'Roll-E'
    The film's humour seemed really contrived, like, we're stopping the action to deliver a one liner, here it comes, *one liner* ok, we'll get back on with the action. Never mind that you're trying to blow up a planet in the next 3 minutes, by all means stop and chat. In the old movies, the humour was in keeping with the environment - in a big fight? Situational humour. In safety? Got time to deliver a joke.
    It was *really* convenient that Fin got marked with blood at the start, so we could tell it was him all the time. Definitely couldn't have picked up on it without that, unless I'd maybe thought a little.
    Emo Kylo Ren is really emo. I get that he's a sith, so emotions->anger->hate etc, but it was very in your face.

    @gftchris said:

    Pretty much every element of the story was taken from one of the previous films...[/size]

    On top of that, Rey is just a bit unbelievable. She is not only an expert mechanic on everything, apparently, also know how to fly the falcon, easily fights off two guys, is now a jedi and within a couple of hours of finding that out she's already stronger than Darth Kylie?

    Share your overall take on the story line...

    My personal theory on Rey is that the practitioners on the "good side" of the Force are now so few that it strengthens them to a far greater extent than it did when you could not swing a dead cat without hitting a Jedi.

  • @gftchris said:

    Pretty much every element of the story was taken from one of the previous films...[/size]

    On top of that, Rey is just a bit unbelievable. She is not only an expert mechanic on everything, apparently, also know how to fly the falcon, easily fights off two guys, is now a jedi and within a couple of hours of finding that out she's already stronger than Darth Kylie?

    Share your overall take on the story line...

    My personal theory on Rey is that the practitioners on the "good side" of the Force are now so few that it strengthens them to a far greater extent than it did when you could not swing a dead cat without hitting a Jedi.

    @tour2ma said:

    Share your overall take on the story line...

    My personal theory on Rey is that the practitioners on the "good side" of the Force are now so few that it strengthens them to a far greater extent than it did when you could not swing a dead cat without hitting a Jedi.

    All the midichlorians, so few jedi?